Planning for Showings

When a buyer wants to see a property, the buyer’s agent makes an appointment with the seller’s agent. This is done by calling the agent’s company or the agent himself or herself and asking for a “showing” appointment. When I first started at Bray Real Estate, I would hear “showing appointment” on the overhead system & I wondered what that meant. At Bray there are people who set showing appointments for Bray properties & they answer the phone for showings. They talk to the buyer’s agent & find out what time the buyer would like to see the property. They also let the buyer’s agent know if there are specific instructions about when & how to get into the house.

When I am working with a seller, someone who wants to sell their property, I gather lots of information from them. One item we need to discuss is how people will make an appointment to look at the property. After all, you have to see the property first to know if you like it enough to buy it. Will the owner need to be there to open the door for the buyer & then leave? Will there be a lockbox on the door with a door key inside? Will there be a combination lock, letters or numbers, on the door with a door key inside? Will there be a special set of keys, like HUD keys, needed to get inside? Once we’ve decided about how to enter the property, we need to think about how much notice should be given & when is a good time. Does the homeowner need time, such as 2-hours notice, to get pets out of the house? Does the homeowner need time to tidy up before someone comes in? If there are tenants in the house, they legally get 24 hours notice before someone can enter, but sometimes tenants will let showings be scheduled with less notice. Are there times that are “off-limits,” such as a day sleeper allowing showings only after 4:00 PM? Are there religious times that the family does not want to be away from the house, such as Sabbath dinners? How will the seller be contacted? Can a message be left on a cell phone? Does the showing desk have to actually talk with the seller & get an okay for the showing appointment to happen? All these considerations are worked out when the property goes on sale, so that showing desk people know how to make the best appointments.

In my next post, we'll walk through a typical showing.

Leaving Cards

Someone once asked me, after I had shown him at least 15 properties, why I left a business card at each house.

I have a business card. Most realtors have business cards. We give them to people; we include them in hand-written notes; we include them with presentations. When we show a property to a potential buyer, we leave a business card in a prominent place. Sometimes it's on the kitchen counter or the dining room table. We do this as a courtesy to let the seller & the seller's agent know that we stopped by. The seller doesn't have to wonder if we are running late & we are still coming. The seller also knows who is responsible if something is "different" when they come back. The seller's agent knows that, since we have shown the property, he or she can find out what the buyer thought.

Sometimes, when a house is vacant, there will be lots of business cards on the kitchen counter. Like a dozen. Then it is interesting for the buyer's agent to see who has shown the property. Or how many people have looked at the property. Although seller's agents try to pick up cards & check vacant properties weekly, that isn't always possible. So a dozen cards in a week may be a lot, but a dozen cards over 3 months is not a lot.

To summarize: I put out a business card when I show a property to a buyer to let the seller & seller's agent know that I really came into the house & showed the property, & when the seller comes back to the house, I'm done. I also put out a business card to let other realtors know that I have shown this property to a potential buyer. And I notice whose cards are there.

Inside Real Estate: Open Houses, part 2

Inside the house, I like to have information available for them. I place the information closer to the door than I am standing or sitting, so they don’t have to go past me to see it. I want them to feel comfortable picking up materials, but not pressured to do so.

I like to have a flyer with details about the property and a flyer with financing information. People are curious about the monthly payments and how much money they need for a down payment.

I also like to have little bottles of water, my keyboard cleaners, and business cards. Sometimes I have a jar for a drawing for a gas gift card, movie tickets or something like that. People don’t have to give me their information when they meet me, but if they are interested in the drawing, they will fill out their name, email, and phone number. After the open house, I can let them know if they won anything or not, thank them for coming, and let them know that I’d be glad to help them find a home to buy.

When people arrive, I usually greet them, introduce myself, and give them the flyers. I tell them I’m available for questions, then I usually let them wander on their own. Sometimes I’ll make comments or be nearby (if the house is big or currently occupied), but I like to give them time to look and talk without interruptions.

People stay for different lengths of time. Usually the longer people stay, the more they like it or the more curious they are about the property. At the end, I gather up my stuff and give a report to my seller. I wrote this during an open house that had three different parties—one couple, one mom with two older daughters, and one neighbor. (There usually is at least one neighbor who shows up out of curiosity.) If there aren’t any offers or showings in the next couple weeks, I’ll have another open house at the same place. The more the property is in the public eye, the greater the chance of getting it sold!!